As you may please God to help
us this evening we'll continue our meditation in the Acts of
the Apostles and the twelfth chapter. And we'll consider our meditation
this evening from verse six down to verse nineteen. And you will remember that last
Friday we just commenced in this twelfth chapter where we noted
that Herod had taken James and the brother of John and killed
him with a sword And because he saw it pleased the people,
he'd now taken Peter and imprisoned Peter. And the result had been
that when Peter was kept in prison, the prayer was made without ceasing
of the church unto God for him. And so we carry on the account
here. As we know that Herod was intent
on killing Peter, in the same way that he had done James. And
so we read, and when Herod would have brought him forth, the same
night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains
and the keepers before the door kept the prison. So Herod had
done all he could to ensure that Peter could not escape. And we see that Peter was here
and just think He'd known that James had been killed. He knew
that he'd now been apprehended and in all likelihood, Herod
intended to kill him the next day. But we see, Peter was blessed
with sleep. You see, he had peace with God. It's a great thing, isn't it?
When the Lord grants us that peace with God. So there may
be many things which may perhaps trouble us and may concern us
and much be The fearful prospect before us, and yet to think the
Lord comes and graciously gives us that sleep. And so here was
Peter then, blessed with that sleep. And although the keepers
there were all around him, either side of him, yet he was still
able to sleep even with those chains. Behold, the angel of
the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison, and he
smote Peter on the side, and raised him up saying, arise up
quickly. And his chains fell off from
his hands. Well, clearly this was a miracle. Here was Peter, the angel came
and roused him up, smote him to make him awake. And then those chains which were
on his hands or his arms, they just fell off from his hands. Wonderful, isn't it, to know
what the Lord God can do. And so here was Peter now with
his chains off and the angel said unto him, gird thyself and
bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he said unto
him, cast thy garment about thee and follow me. And he went out
and followed him and wist not that it was true, which was done
by the angel. but thought he saw a vision. Well, we can understand, can
we not? Here was Peter, you see, blessed with this amazing deliverance. The light was shining. It was
a dark night and the light was shining. And that was a very
peculiar and blessed light which enabled Peter to follow the angel. And he got himself dressed and
he did that which the angel desired, that he would follow him. And
so when they were passed the first and second ward, they came
unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city, which opened to
them of his own accord. This, of course, was a prison
within a city. It wasn't outside of the city.
And these gates, the gates of the prison, they opened of their
own accord. Again, we realize a very similar
situation occurred when Paul and Silas were in prison. Then
the earthquake came and everything opened as it were. And so we
see here the angel leading Peter and he led him out through one
street and then forthwith the angel departed from him. Well, the deliverance had been
accomplished. Peter being miraculously brought
out once again into the streets of the city, and now the angel
left him. And Peter then was by himself. And we read, and when Peter comes
himself, he said, now I know of a surety that the Lord has
sent his angel. Quite clearly here, Peter gave
the glory where it was due. And he recognized it was God.
that he had come and brought about this deliverance. And he
tells us, now I know. Well, we might say, well, of
course you would know, Peter. Well, we still need faith to
realise this was the work of God. And so Peter acknowledges,
and it's good when we acknowledge the work of God, how true it
was. Now I know of a surety that the
Lord hath sent his angel and hath delivered me out of the
hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of
the Jews. Without any doubt, the Lord had
appeared to Peter in what seemed to be an impossible situation,
chained there between guards, the prison locked, the guards
outside, no possibility of any escape, of any deliverance, But
the Lord came in this wonderful way and brought Peter out of
that impossible situation. And he was able to acknowledge
that it was the Lord that had done this for him. And so when
he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary,
the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered
together praying. Well, there was urgent prayer. It would appear that Peter was
likely to be killed the next day. And no doubt these people
heard the preaching of Peter. They no doubt observed his zeal
for the Lord and the effect through the Holy Spirit their preaching
had. And now Peter was taken from them. He'd been apprehended.
He was in prison, likely to be killed. What could they do? Pray. And my friends, how important
it is for us to realize that in our lives, when faced with
impossibilities, what can we do? Well, remember,
we can pray. And so here we have these brethren,
they came together, they joined together, and they were praying
for Peter's release. We don't know exactly what time
it was, it was probably well on in the night, and here they
were praying. And so we read, and where many
were gathered together praying, they come together, the Church
of God had joined together to pray. What a good thing it is
when we come and join together for prayer, truly to pray. Now here was a case when there
was an urgent need for the Lord to appear. And perhaps we can
often become quite casual almost in our prayers. Perhaps not in
that urgency, but here we see the necessity of the Lord appearing. And the Lord did hear, and the
Lord had appeared, and the Lord had delivered. And when he had
considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary, the mother
of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together
praying. And, well, Peter, He probably
wouldn't have heard them, they might have been in an inner room.
But nonetheless, he came to the door and he knocked at the door
at the gate. And a damsel came to hearken
named Rhoda. We don't know anything about
her, we just know her name. We don't know if she was a relation
or anything like that, but we clearly would believe that she
was a believer. And gather with the people here
who were praying. And she come to, here then, who's
this knocking? And she heard Peter's voice.
She didn't open the gate for gladness, but ran in and told
how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, thou
art mad. It's strange, isn't it? Here
they've been praying for this very thing to happen. And now
we see they couldn't really believe it. They couldn't really believe
that God had heard their prayers in such an amazing way. We observe, don't we, unbelief
coming up here. We think, well, surely they would
have realised their prayers had been answered. But no, they didn't
work in that way at all. And therefore they said unto
her, Thou art mad. Well, she constantly affirmed
that it was even so. Then said they, it is his angel. Again, they weren't convinced
that it was Peter. They really were prepared to
even think it was an angel, rather than the Apostle Peter, who had
actually come and was knocking on the door. But Peter continued
knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were
astonished. Astonished, they shouldn't have
been astonished really, should they? But nonetheless, we see
frailty of natural man and we're thankful to know that here was
an account and we see that set forth here in these believers
who had prayed in faith and now they'd received the answer and
it was so wonderful they could not really believe it and they
were astonished but he beckoning unto them with his hand to hold
their peace no doubt they were so excited now as they realized
it really was Peter. And yet he didn't want to disturb
the neighbors because he was supposed to be in prison. He
didn't want them to come and recognize him and get him apprehended
again. So he beckoned that they should
be quiet, hold their peace. And then he declared unto them
how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said,
Show these things unto James." This of course is not the James
that was killed, this is another James. And to the brethren, he
departed and went into another place. Now the apostle wanted
the truth to be known. Therefore he said to go and tell
them, that's why really we read together that 66th Psalm, which
was really quite appropriate, because the Psalmist said, Come
and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath
done for my soul." Here was Peter then, wasn't it? Wanting the
people to know what God had done, the wonderful deliverance, and
how God-honouring it is when the Lord does great things, to
acknowledge it and to desire that the people would come and
hear what had been done. And he said, Verily God hath
heard me, He hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed
be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy
from me." Well, we have in this account this wonderful realization
of what the Lord can do. Now, we have this physical account,
but I believe it also has a very wonderful spiritual application. And just very briefly, if we
can think of our spiritual soul. What does the devil want to do? Well, if he can, he will slay
us. If he can, he will slay us, and
he will get rid of us. That's his great intent, so that
our Christianity will die with us. That's what he hopes. And
therefore, his great aim, and success sometimes, is to get
us, as it were, put into prison. And we find ourselves therefore
surrounded with those people who keep us away from God, away
from the things of God, away from being able to worship. And
as it were, he tries to ensure that we're chained down and there's
no hope of us recovering ourselves. We have no natural strength to
recover ourselves. No, we've been, as it were, captured
by the devil. And here we are interned in prison
and unable to free ourselves. Well, two things. First of all,
to think that in that situation we should pray. And secondly,
to think that in that situation the Church of God also may be
found praying for us in that condition. And then we see the
Lord comes. The Lord comes in a a wonderful
way, and grants deliverance. And what does he do? He shines
light. He shines light into our heart. And not only does he shine light
into our heart, he brings us out of that prison house. Our chains, as it were, fall
off. The gates, which were barred
before us, open at their own accord, and the Lord leads us
out. He leads us out, as it were,
into the city, into the Church of God. And then, you see, it
may be that for a time then the Lord may perhaps leave us. And
we realise then what He's done, what He's done for us. We've
had a wonderful deliverance, a wonderful blessing. The Lord
hasn't left us, He hasn't forsaken us, but He's brought us out of
that prison house And well, we might recognize here what occurred. Here was Peter. What did he do?
He went to the house of Mary. What does the released believer
do? I believe he goes to the church
of God. I believe he knocks on the door
of the church of God to be able to declare what God has done
for his soul in delivering him. And it may be sometimes that
the Church of God may not always realise initially or be prepared
to believe that such a character has been delivered, that such
a character has been released from prison. May have been a
bad, a very bad person. We are very bad people. And yet
to think here as we might be knocking and it may have to continue
to knock because the Church may not always believe. that that
which they perhaps have been praying for has come to pass. And so there was that continual
knocking and then the door was opened. The door was opened and
that he was received in. And so of course that is so with
the church of God the door is opened and they're received in
and what is heard the testimony of the deliverance. the evidence
of God's mercy and God's blessing and the concern that this account
might not just be kept as it were under wraps but it was to
be spoken and it was to be declared as Peter said here when he beckoned
to them with his hand to hold their peace declared unto them
how the Lord had brought him out of the prison and he said
go show these things unto James and to the brethren.' And he
departed and went unto another place." Well, it's a wonderful
thought, isn't it? We see this physical situation
with regard to Peter and yet the deeper picture that we have,
the deeper account of a true believer who perhaps is cast
into prison and is wonderfully delivered to declare the blessings
of the Lord to His honour and glory. Amen.